Feng Shui and Recreating Oneself

by T. Raphael Simons

T. Raphael Simons' books, Feng Shui Step by Step and Feng Shui Strategies for Business Success, are published by Crown Trade Paperbacks. You can order them on his website,
www.trs-fengshui.com. You can contact Raphael directly for consultations at (919) 425-2307.

Recreating oneself is meaningful when you view it as a kind of metaphor for self-knowledge, or self-realization. One ultimately becomes what one essentially is from the beginning. To recreate yourself in this context means, therefore, to free yourself from whatever obstructs you from being what you authentically are. It means freeing yourself of all the acquired attitudes and self-beliefs that hold you back from walking your own true path in life. There is an American Indian saying, "When you came into the world perhaps you were drawn into the wishes of others, so that you began to walk the crooked path." Self-knowledge is the goal of self-recreating. To know what you are involves knowing what you were endowed with from birth. Self-recreating is to be understood as a process of self-liberation, or emergence from obstacles, that brings one's innate gifts to manifest in the world. Each and every one of us is unique and has something unique to offer.

Feng Shui literally means "wind and water." Wind and water are descriptive of movement. Movement is descriptive of the Tao, or the Way. The Feng Shui expert is a Taoist wizard whose sole function in the world is to reassert the Way, to clear obstructions to the natural flow. The knowledge that constitutes Feng Shui is as old as the Tao, as old as existence.

What Westerners call Feng Shui is but one aspect of the Chinese concept. This narrow perspective is perhaps because modern Western thinking tends to separate, exclude, and specialize, whereas traditional Chinese, or Taoist, thinking tends to include and comprehend holistically. For example, modern Westerners ordinarily think of time and space as being separate, while Taoists understand time and space as interdependent aspects of the same thing. Perhaps an appropriate translation for Feng Shui is Chinese Taoist wizardry, or Chinese shamanism. Feng Shui, according to its ancient meaning, includes many things, but the point of Feng Shui is to support life.

Contrary to what many Westerners have come to think, Feng Shui has little to do with interior decoration. Nonetheless, it is elegant. According to the ancient tradition, the Feng Shui expert should know two different systems of Chinese face reading, two systems of Chinese astrology with their corresponding compass methods, various divining techniques, and an array of secret techniques that deal with spirits. Moving furniture about and using colors and objects are simply means to produce certain energetic affects. None of it is done haphazardly. Feng Shui has a language and logic that enable Feng Shui experts to read the energetic condition of their client's life and environment.

The central language and logic of Feng Shui is found in the Ba Tzu system. In the classical Chinese tradition, Ba Tzu is the most important key for discovering one's own nature and path in life. Ba Tzu, which means Eight Words, is one of several forms of astrology practiced in. While there are hardly any Westerners who know it, Ba Tzu is used by all Chinese astrologers.

There are several problems that Westerners have in approaching Ba Tzu. The main problem is that it has to be learned in a rare set of Chinese characters. It is necessary to learn these characters before learning Ba Tzu. It is not possible to translate the Ba Tzu system into a non-Chinese language without making it a thousand times more difficult to work with than it already is. The Chinese ephemeredes, from which Ba Tzu calculations are made, are printed only in Chinese. Though the characters are very precise and concentrated, each contains a wide, yet clearly delineated, range of meanings. They have nothing to do with what Westerners think of as astrology, yet a Ba Tzu chart will make accurate predictions. Ba Tzu is called a form of astrology because its contents are regulated by the apparent movements of the Sun and the Moon. The contents of Ba Tzu have nothing to do with the movements of the planets, as in Western astrology. Instead, they have everything to do with cyclical transformations of the five elements (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal). There is no Western ephemeredes for these transformational cycles; they are entirely within the domain of the Chinese occult system.

Another problem for Westerners who approach Feng Shui is that there is only scant information about Ba Tzu in any Western language. Even if one could read the Chinese characters in the Ba Tzu system, one would need personal instruction to master its very subtle techniques. It takes a lot of close training to get used to its unique logic. And there are very few Chinese wizards who care to teach their secrets to other Chinese people, let alone Westerners.

Another indispensable part of Feng Shui is the astrological system known as Jyo Hsing, or Nine Star. Jyo Hsing is far simpler than Ba Tzu. And, while it certainly helps, it isn't necessary to learn Jyo Hsing in Chinese. For this reason, both of my books, Feng Shui Step by Step and Feng Shui Strategies for Business Success , were based on Jyo Hsing and its corresponding compass methods known as Lo Shu, or Book of the River Lo. Jyo Hsing, like Ba Tzu, is based on the cyclical rotations of the five elements through time and space. It is easy to calculate Jyo Hsing without resorting to the Chinese ephemeredes. Jyo Hsing is used by all traditional Feng Shui experts in Asia .

Both the Ba Tzu and Jyo Hsing systems relate simultaneously to time and space. They tell significant things about a person's life and a person's relationship to the environment. The compass methods of these systems are really to be understood as spacial astrologies. Space interfaces with time. By adjusting someone's environmental conditions, for better or worse, that life is affected. Knowing a person's date and time of birth, a uniquely personal harmonious living and working environment can be generated.

Following the idea that to recreate oneself means to emerge from obstructive conditions in life, we can see that correcting the imbalances in our living and working environments will have positive effects on our lives. It is taken as a truth that one's environment is one's mirror, and, conversely, that one's life is the mirror of one's environment. When your environment is balanced, you experience deeper harmony in life. And when you dwell in peace, your environment becomes pure.

Obstructive conditions may go far beyond such obvious things as clutter. They include awkward furniture arrangements, incorrect use of colors, incorrect appointments of rooms, energetic problems in the building, problems in the surrounding area that adversely affect the building, negative underground energies such as noxious rays, hauntings, and so on. The Feng Shui expert should be able to identify and correct all of these.

Ba Tzu, an essential part of Feng Shui, is based on the twelve animal signs (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig) and the yin and yang phases of the five elements (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal). When the animal signs are combined with the elements, they produce sixty combinations. The sixty combinations are arranged in yearly, monthly, daily, and hourly cycles. In other words, it has a sixty-year cycle, a sixty-month cycle, a sixty-day cycle and a sixty-hour cycle, or 12,960,000 combinations in all. Ba Tzu gives deep insights into a person's nature as well as abilities, talents, strengths, vulnerabilities, and relationships. There is not one area of life that it doesn't address. It gives an excellent bird's eye view of one's life and destiny. It shows the unfolding of one's life in ten-year cycles, as well as year by year, month by month, and day by day. In addition, Ba Tzu reveals what is called one's Vital Element, or that element upon which one's life depends. Because it reveals one's Vital Element, Ba Tzu is the most important astrological technique in Feng Shui. One's Vital Element translates into one's best orientation and color. For example, if your Vital Element were Wood, you would do best to sleep with your head to the East or Southeast, the most advantageous position for you to sit in would be with your back to the East or Southeast, and your best colors would be green and light blue. Ba Tzu also shows which element rules one's business interests, money, reputation, education, tendencies to illness, children, spouse, parents, home, and so on.

Ba Tzu has a compass system in the Lopan called Twenty-Four Mountains. The Twenty-Four Mountains is the spacial form of Ba Tzu astrology. By working with it, the Feng Shui expert is able to generate interactions between a person's environmental situation and astrological chart, and thus adjust the environmental situation to support and bring about optimum conditions in the person's life.

Jyo Hsing, or Nine Star, is much simpler than Ba Tzu. And while it is possible to use Jyo Hsing by itself, it is traditionally combined with Ba Tzu. Jyo Hsing can also be used to find favorable orientations because it, like Ba Tzu, refers to a complete compass system. The corresponding compass system to Jyo Hsing is called Lo Shu. This is one of the oldest and finest systems. Through it, the Feng Shui expert is able to bring any environment into perfect balance.

Beyond the ability to work with the astrological and compass methods, the traditional Feng Shui expert should be an accomplished dowser. Very often there are negative energetic conditions from underground that effect a house and that need clearing. Dowsing is a natural ability to read underground energetic conditions. It can be done using an instrument such as a pendulum, or can be done without instruments. In a sense, one's hands and feet are dowsing instruments. The essential skill in dowsing is awareness of what one's body is feeling. One senses different spaces differently. The energy of some is noxious. Some spaces are haunted. In all my years of practicing Feng Shui, I have had to clear a handful of seriously haunted houses.

Another important skill of a Feng Shui expert is Chinese face reading. Like palmistry, it is a way of reading a person's nature, circumstances in life, and fortunes. In it, one reads the bone structure as well as the lines and subtle colors that develop in the person's face. Face reading has two branches. One deals with fortune telling, the other with medical diagnosis. I have had some remarkable experiences with both. For instance, one woman I saw remarked that I revealed true things about a problematic relationship she had that she never talked about. Another woman, whom I warned of gall bladder problems and who didn't believe a word I said, developed gall stones within six months of the time I read for her. Face reading is used in Feng Shui primarily as a diagnostic tool. It shows the balance of elements in the person's life. When used with Chinese astrology, it is possible to make significant predictions for a person.

The first thing I do in a Feng Shui analysis is construct an astrological chart based on a person's date and time of birth. I read this to the client in detail, as it forms the basis of all the work that follows. A Feng Shui consultation always involves an in-depth conversation and results in a great deal of clarity. The person's situation in life is completely spelled out, and all necessary recommendations for balancing and adjusting their home and/or workplace are then made. The point of Feng Shui is to support life.

The West's current interest is in how Feng Shui focuses on our environment. It is hoped that greater understanding of what Feng Shui is will help us restore ourselves to our true nature and that our environment will reassert its pristine nature naturally.